The whites in your eyes
by avatarhike
Summary: Winter melts into spring when betrayal and clanreform unite two unlikely souls. Together, they must seek the truth from Jiraiya's Icha Icha book which holds another legacy of the Yondaime. Can they second their emotions? NEJISAKU
1. Chapter 1

"Your mission is to heal Jiraiya. He's been badly wounded…"

The Godaime Hokage speaks in her usual formal tone but her 23 year old apprentice knows better. Haruno Sakura could see the intense fear and worry emitting from her teacher's eyes and despite her effort to radiate a calm presence in the office, Sakura didn't miss the soft sound of Tsunade's fingers tapping.

"According to the scroll I received from Jiraiya this morning, he is in no condition to make it back to Konoha."

'_Shit! It's Jiraiya we're talking about here…whatever makes him immobile must be bad news…'_

"I know what you're thinking Sakura. His injuries are the result of fighting against four members of the Akatsuki…_alone_"

Sakura gasped in horror. It doesn't matter how strong a lion is, it will crumble against four wild hyenas.

"He successfully eliminated Deidara from the Hidden Rock, Kakuzu from Waterfall and Tobi but didn't manage to finish on Hidan."

"I see. Why did he fight them in the first place?"

"Jiraiya encountered them during his data gathering and I'm referring to the real serious data gathering here..."

Sakura manages to hold a stifle of laugh when the images of Jiraiya bumping into the Akatsuki members while peeping on women bathhouses came into her mind.

"It is apparent that Akatsuki is after the same information as Konoha. Not to worry though, Jiraiya told me in the scroll that the Akatsuki didn't manage to get hold of the information and that he has the data with him."

A small smile beams from Tsunade and she continued, "Sakura, It's a dangerous territory you are entering, that's why I'm sending along four Anbu members with you. You are leaving in two hours."

"Hai"

Before she exit the room, Sakura turn her head and gave Tsunade a reassuring smile, "Don't worry shishou, he'll be plaguing bathhouses again in no time". She left the room missing Tsunade's whisper of "Thank you"

* * *

The pink haired medic knew that her teacher wished to heal Jiraiya herself but Tsunade couldn't just abandon her entire village and rush to aid her best friend. She also knew that Tsunade could have sent some ANBU medic but she chose Sakura because she trusts her the most. Not trusting in Sakura's abilities will be the same with doubting her own skills.

Hence, flattered from the enormous amount of trust given by Tsunade, Sakura walks towards the meeting point with a determination in her heart. She had promised herself years ago that she will do almost anything her shishou asks her to do. Ever since the death of her parents four years ago, Tsunade is like her own family in many ways. The Hokage taught her, gave her advice and nurture her the way any mother would nurture their daughters.

'_This is one of the many things I'll do to thank you, shishou…'_

When she arrived at the meeting point, her face lights up to see one of the four ninjas signed to escort her.

"Naruto!! Of course it's you! Why didn't I see it coming?"

Obviously it had to be Naruto escorting her. He and Jiraiya shares the same bond that Sakura has with Tsunade and despite Naruto's cheerful façade he is giving her, she knew Naruto is worried to death for Jiraiya.

Naruto gave her his toothiest grin, "Aww Sakura-chan! You're so happy to see me!" "Baka!" she gave him a soft pound on his head.

Leaving Naruto to rub on his newly inflicted bump, Sakura smiles as the other Anbu slid his dog mask and gave her a friendly smile showing off his fangs. "Wassup..Sakura!" followed by the sound of Akamaru's barking.

"Well, we better get going then!" she says while giving Akamaru a cuddle.

"Not yet"

Folding his hands, the bird masked Anbu leaning on a tree trunk finally spoke up.

"Neji-san, is it? I assume you are this mission team captain. Am I correct?"

"Hn" he replies, scoffing from behind his mask

Suddenly Naruto grabs her hand and pulls her away. He puts one of his hands up to her left ear and whispers to her the way he used to do it back when they were still genin.

"Ne, Sakura-chan… Neji's not in a good mood today. He's usually not this grouchy"

Sakura furrows her brows and wonders what's wrong but her thoughts are halted when she saw the final member of the team walking towards their direction, playfully sucking on his senbons and sending a friendly wink towards her.

"Genma!!" she exclaims.

"My, my…When the Hokage said that we were escorting a medic I never expected her to look so sex.."

"Right! Let's get going" Neji didn't let him finish and was already leaping onto the nearest tree branch.

'_In a bad mood are we…_' Genma thought, sucking his senbon loudly in annoyance.

* * *

The Hyuuga prodigy couldn't believe his luck. Just two days after _it_ happened, he was assigned to an escorting mission. Neji decided that after the incident, there are only two options available for him to relieve his stress. One, venting his anger on rigorous training or two, getting assign on an S-rank mission where he could kill an enemy ninja. Unfortunately, a certain perverted ninja just have to get injured— badly injured that is at the time where he needed to be alone the most.

With his Byakugan activated, he could see a flicker of pink jumping from one branch to another approaching him from behind.

Reminding him self to stay focus to the mission and to maintain his patience, which currently is already running dangerously low, he braces himself for the worst. Right now, Hyuuga Neji would rather face an opponent and fight rather than having a conversation with a member of the opposite sex.

As expected, the pink haired medic appears on his right and adjusts her speed to match his pace. He waits for the woman to start the conversation so he could end it quickly, but as they jump off more and more branches, Sakura remain silent.

Unbeknown to the white eyed male, Sakura is watching him intensely from the corner of her eyes whilst trying to figure out the reason behind the murderous chakra coming out from him.

She is familiar of his character. So familiar that to her, the name Hyuuga Neji is somehow synonymous with words like cold, quiet and a mix between arrogance and confidence. Yet, in one of the very rare events that they stumble upon each other, Sakura noted that Hyuuga Neji is one very polite person, quite a gentleman really. He would stand up and let her have his seat and gracefully open doors for her. Of course, she knew it was nothing special since she knew that he was attached but this rare chivalry of him made Sakura curious about what is behind his icy nature.

This curiosity only grew even further when the Hokage assigned her to head a long term medic research mission. This was a mission proposed by Hyuuga Hiashi himself who personally inform the Godaime that he wished to reform the Hyuuga clan and eliminate the clan hierarchy. Hence, the Hyuuga clan leader wants the branch clan symbol to be unsealed from the temple of every branch clan member.

The on going research has been hard for Sakura and her team since they have to go through a room full of Hyuuga clan history scrolls. Reading those scrolls she realized how tough life has been for the man leaping beside her. She turn her head to watch him closely and even though his face is concealed by his bird mask, she could still see his strong jaw line, the feature she likes the most on a man.

"What is it?"

Sakura broke off from her daydreaming when she saw his jaws moving.

"Ah… nothing"

"Then stop breathing down my neck"

She is taken aback by his rudeness and thought, '_What the hell…'_

"I'm sorry…Something's bugging you?"

'_Bugging…perfect choice of word_', he inwardly laughed at the irony.

"Yes but its not you… yet"

"Ah… having a lover's spat are we?" Sakura teases.

The result was a shock intake of breath coming from the man. _'How dare this woman make a joke and especially on that…'_

"As a matter of fact…yes. I broke up with Tenten two days ago"

Realizing that she had just put her foot into her mouth, Sakura is speechless. She could only mouth a sincere "Sorry…"

Neji ignores her and increase his speed in order to let her stay behind him but he knew very little about the pink haired medic and one of the things he overlooked is her very stubborn nature.

Sakura increases her pace and leaped over two branches to keep up with him.

"Neji-san…please. I really do apologize"

"Apology accepted. Now leave me alone before I decide to hate all women"

Sakura almost choke when she heard what he just said.

"Excuse me, Neji-san… Whatever happens between you is not a justification for you to blame all wom…"

"She cheated on me," he said, cutting her off, grimly.

The pink haired medic puts her hands to her mouth and blames herself for putting herself in a very awkward situation. _'That's what you get for being damn nosy!_' she cursed silently.

"Oh my god…Neji-san.. I am terribly sor.."

"We've been going out for six months and everything was fine until a few weeks ago. She was acting all weird. That was when I realized she had insects on her clothes…"

'_Could it be...'_

"But you can't just assume…"

"I didn't assume, woman. I confirm my suspicion two days ago when I saw her kissing that damned bug user."

The medic is shocked. Shocked for Tenten's unfaithfulness and shocked to see her squad captain so…vulnerable.

The Hyuuga prodigy himself is shocked. Out of everyone in the world, he just had to 'pour his heart out' like a heartbroken teenage kid to another woman.

"Don't worry Neji-san. Things will be okay. It won't be for now but time heals everything." She said, giving him a kind smile.

'_Beautiful…_' he thought before quickly banishing that piece of mind away.

"I always believe that life is a balance. You lose something, you'll gain another."

The white eyed shinobi is left astonished from her thoughtful words.

'_You lose something, you'll gain another. She's right…keep it together'_

He stopped and turns around to see his teammates before he yelled, "Guys! At the rate we are going, there will be no more Icha Icha craps! We're almost at the rendezvous point. Naruto prepare to summon your creature!"

Kiba, Naruto and Genma are flabbergasted at their captain's sudden change of mood but Sakura could only form a big smile.

'_After all the things that happened to him… he deserves better.'_

* * *

Pleasee Read and Reviewsss :)

Constructive criticisms are greatly appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, sorry for the very late update. As I said on my profile page, I just got back from a looong holiday but now I'm back!

Please Read and Review :)

* * *

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Naruto's summon, Gamakichi, led the team through a very foreign part of the forest. They went through a path surrounded by series of traps before fighting their way through chest-high swamps, which "… smells very much like oil," according to a grunting Inuzuka clan member.

The chosen route also annoyed Sakura because it forced her to carry her heavy backpack above her head so as to keep her medical supplies grease-free. Suddenly, someone roughly grab her bag, making her gasps in surprise from the unexpected lost of load.

"Wha…," Sakura looked up to see white eyes staring at her in a matter-of-factly.

"I'm taller than you," he said, casually placing her backpack on his broad shoulder while walking ahead, leaving her behind.

Sakura saw no point in arguing since the swamp is clearly getting deeper.

"Oi Sakura! I can carry you on my ba.."

"I can _manage_ Genma, thanks"

She was unsure of her own statement since the swamp is now over her neck. As tempted, as she was to use the chakra on her feet to walk on the swamp, Gamakichi told Naruto earlier that the swamp is chakra-repellant so as to keep enemy shinobi away from the dwellings of the frog clan.

Her worry turned out to be short lived since the team seemed to be approaching a small cave and with every step she took, she could feel the swamp getting lower and lower until finally it reached only her ankles. She slowly ran to catch up with their team leader to retrieve her heavy backpack.

"Thanks," she smiled giving him both of her palms so he could plop her bag on it.

He met her gaze and something made him lingered. It was the combination of the spark in her green eyes and the way she bit her tongue when she smiled which made it so….

"What's wrong Neji? Have I got something else on me other than _mud_?"

Smiling, Sakura dramatically brushed her mud-clad shoulder with her right hand in disgust before showing him the palm of the same hand.

He nonchalantly gave Sakura her bag while looking everywhere but at her.

Sakura shook her head and silently laughed at the Hyuuga's weird antics while the white eyed shinobi walked ahead into the cave and pretended that nothing happened

As the group stepped into the cave, everyone came to full alert when sound of troubled short breaths echoed against the cavern wall.

"Ero-Sennin!!!" Naruto's frantic voice boomed. Neji predicted Naruto's reaction and stretched his right arm to the side, blocking Naruto from rushing and screaming bloody murder.

"The last thing that he needs is unnecessary headaches, Naruto"

Agitated, Naruto tried to yank Neji's arm and with his boisterous voice he yelled at him, "Bastard! Let me go, you cold hearted son …"

"Na-ru-to…" Sakura said, softly but with a subtle hint of 'my-fist-can-do-more-damage-to-this-cave-than-your-voice' on her face.

Neji raised his eyebrows when he saw the instant effect of Sakura's words. The blonde ninja seemed to have calmed down and retreated back behind Neji.

"Geez Naruto…get a hold of yourself," Genma sighed as Naruto walk beside him.

Naruto ignored him, forcing himself to keep quiet as the group, led by Gamakichi, slowly approached the heart of the cave.

There, lay the great and powerful Jiraiya. No trace of goofiness or 'ero'-ness in his face. He looked helpless with blood and pus coming out from the many wounds gaping open on his torso.

Sakura rushed to his side and shouted at her team not to come close.

"That includes you Naruto! I need the place to be as hygienic as it can be!"

After examining the wound, Sakura prepared herself because from the looks of it, she also needed all the concentration that she can get.

'_Blood turning purple with pus – type G poison, sweating profusely – fever for 2 nights and looks like I have to meticulously fish out these remnants of hardened clay from his wound_,' she thought, assessing the situation in hand.

She wondered what kept him alive for more than a day with these severe wounds and serious case of poisoning. 'No time for that,' she thought, putting on a pair of medical gloves.

'_Let's start with extracting the poison….'_

_--------------------------------_

Neji watch the medic from afar. With his byakugan, he could see clearly what she was doing. He watch as the pink haired medic skillfully removed what looked like toxic with her glowing blue right hand whilst keeping her left hand on Jiraiya's forehead, perhaps to lower his fever or make it less painful.

"Naruto, Jiraiya is going to be all right," Neji said, not taking his eyes from the skilled medic.

"I know…I trust Sakura-chan," he grinned.

"Tch, then why did you panic before? Dobe," Genma scoffed.

Kiba put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and sighed, "Yare…Yare, looks like we're not needed. Sakura has everything under control, ne? I was pumped out to show Naruto-teme this new jutsu that Akamaru and I just invented."

Naruto retorted and Genma laughed before saying something that resulted in him being at the receiving end of Naruto's punch. They kept on talking but their captain didn't pay them any attention.

Hyuuga Neji was amused. He never knew that Haruno Sakura, former Uchiha die-hard fan could be this good. Of course, he heard from many (mainly from Hiashi-sama talking endlessly about the clan reform) that she has become a skilled medic, one of the best in Konoha.

'_Still, I never knew she was this good'_ he thought inwardly, staring at the medic who was now forming a series of complicated seals before placing her hand on top of Jiraiya's torso. The skin around his wound danced like fire before sticking to each other and shut the gaping wound close.

It was amazing, all this work, done by one single person. At her age, nonetheless.

Sakura panted, her already oily body now covered in sweat. She threw her head back to see how her team mates are doing. She couldn't see them but everything seemed to be fine so she continued her work.

Unbeknown to her, Hyuuga Neji froze like a dead fish. His byakugan had allowed him to see from up close the work that she was doing but he didn't expect to suddenly see her face from a very very _very_ short distance. Her cheeks tinged with sweat and a hint of redness and her fierce glowing eyes staring back at him. He froze like a moron, hoping that she didn't notice that he's been staring at her intensely. Neji knew that from that distance, she wouldn't be able to tell that he was looking at her but his mind quickly searched for an excuse, just in case.

---------------------------------

It's been an hour since Sakura healed Jiraiya and the pink haired medic insisted that the old man needed more than five hours to rest before feeding them the information they needed.

Neji had no choice.

So there he was, sitting in front of a newly built campfire, being completely and utterly useless. He searched his mind for something to do. '_Definitely not meditating…'_ he thought. Just the presence of the loudmouthed ninja could make his supposed calm meditation an unbearable experience. He then searched his mind for something to think about. How weird, he usually _has _something to think about, especially this past few days something has been literally plaguing his mind and driving him angry. It was then that he remembered how he had forgotten about the problem.

'_Ten-ten…'_ he thought disgustingly.

He had forgotten how his teammate slash former best friend slash former lover had cheated on him. He didn't know which one angered him the most, whether it was the fact that he lost her or because the woman had easily stepped on his pride or that he felt so stupid for being blind and not realizing it sooner.

"Neji…"

"What?!" he yelled, furious from his line of thoughts.

It was Sakura, furrowing her brows she curtly replied, "Jiraiya's up."

She turned on heels with raised eyebrows from his spatting at her.

Nonetheless, she was relieved when she heard steady footsteps following her from behind. _'At least his crazy mood swings won't be interrupting the mission goal, he has too much pride for that'_, she thought.

Naruto, Genma and Kiba had already sat down around Jiraiya when Sakura came with Neji. "Hey there…," Jiraiya forced a voice, still managing to wink in the process, "my number one favourite medic."

"Oh my, what about Tsunade?" she joked.

"Well, she doesn't look as cute as you in that mini skir..OUWW!"

"Oh, does it hurt? Can't be helped since I need your blood sample for the hospital," she said.

Jiraiya grunted and was about to complain when their white-eyed captain cut him off, "Jiraiya-sama, I'm aware that you are in possession of the information that Tsunade wants us to bring back. Shall we retrieve it now?"

"Ah…yes, the legacy. Naruto, help me up," Jiraiya said, struggling to sit up right.

"That won't do."

Sakura ignored the annoyed look on Jiraiya's face as she manage to push him back down with very little force from her index finger.

"Fine, the information that I have is in my head. I'm afraid I can't tell you what it is because the last time I thought it was safe; two members of the Akatsuki were on my tail. So…" he said, pulling a hideously familiar orange book from his pocket, "…I do what I always do when I need to get something out of my head."

The rest of the group stared at the toad sennin dumb-founded.

"So basically everything you have in mind relates to…porn," Sakura grimaced.

"Yes my dear, in my head I speak the beautiful language of love."

'_More like the language of dirty old sex if you ask me…._' She scowled inwardly.

Genma on the other hand didn't look the least bit disgusted, "Jiraiya-sama, how did you manage to get a book published so soon? Your courier must be top notch! I myself have been thinking about publishing something slightly similar to yours!"  
"Young-one, it is not a published book if you look closer, I just gave an orange cover to my blank notebook."

Sakura smiled in relief, "So it's not actually Icha Icha porn ne?"

Three hours later and Sakura realized how stupid she was for actually thinking that Jiraiya could for once be moral and gave her real notebook scribbled with information she needed to memorize.

Instead, the perverted member of the legendary sannin had chosen her to memorize a chapter of his raw, unedited, soon-to-be published, dirty Icha Icha ….

'_She could feel him deep inside her body, way under her soft porcelain skin. The pleasure she felt could shake grounds beneath her. She savored where his rough hands grab. "We should…more…," were the first words said on that train._'

Sakura felt officially sick.

"Sakura-chaaaaaan…how's it going? Got them all in your head?"

"Shut up Naruto."

Sakura stood up and walk over to Jiraiya. "I'm done. Now what do I do with these 'information' you gave me?". Jiraiya covered his mouth with his hands and did his signature giggle, "Ano... maybe you can… act it out?"

"I will let that go… just once," Sakura smiled rather forcefully.

"Ah… not in the mood for jokes are we? Well see… just keep them in your head and remember this. He was the fourth hokage."

"I think almost everyone in the village knows that Jiraiya-sama…Are you trying to joke around with me?"

"Aahh… getting all fired up so easily is not good for a rather fine looking female like… OUCH!"

Sakura's fist met Jiraiya's face.

The rest of the team who were watching them didn't even made a single move to restrain the pink haired medic. The pervert deserved it.

"Why need a five men team for this job? Sakura could have done everything by herself! That Godaime just wants me out of the village and away from the nurses," Genma scowled.

Neji furrowed his eyebrows at Genma's comment. He was right, the Hokage must had her reason to order a five men team for a simple 'information gathering' mission. Maybe the mission was suppose to be more dangerous than what it seemed or maybe what Sakura has now is a very very important information that it needs the utmost guarding until they reach Konoha.

----------------------------

Contrary to his guess, reaching Konoha was not a big problem. It even seemed too easy, as if the enemy wanted Sakura to kept that information and decipher its meaning. The team were walking outside Hokage's building after filing their report and Nji couldn't help but think how simple the mission was. 'It's like the calm before the storm…' Neji shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the bad thoughts that he was thinking. It was an obvious habit that he seem to posses, a habit of balancing all the goods and the bad in life meticulously and a habit of designing what the worst possible scenario or outcome of everything will be.

When he first started going out with Ten-Ten, he contemplated all the worst possible outcomes from his relationship. He thought that maybe he would ruin the dynamics of his former team or that it would distract him from keeping focus on missions or that he would not live up to her expectations. He thought about it so much that he missed one important one. 'Will she be faithful to me?'

Cursing himself for his determined and uptight approach, he wished he could just be more like Haruno Sakura and let it go with the flow.

He remembered her words, _'You lose something, you gain another…'_

"Neji!"

A cheery voice broke his line of thought.

"It was great working with you again! Thanks a lot hey!" said Sakura.

Neji nodded in return.

"I'll guess I'll see you guys soon. Bye!"

Sakura jumped to the nearest rooftop and began to swiftly make her way home.

"Wait Sakura-chaan! Guys! Don't forget tonight at _Midnight Ki_. Drinks on me!" screamed Naruto as he tailed her from behind.

Genma shook his head, "That kid really loves _Midnight Ki_. Can't really blame him… the girls are H-O-T!"

"I agree… I agree," Kiba replied followed by a bark from Akamaru

Neji had no interest in continuing the conversation so he merely nodded before he parted his way.

There was no way in hell that he was going to that club. He was up for a long relaxing hot warming bath and a much needed meditation.


End file.
